Of the 39 riders making their debut at this year's Giro d'Italia, Mathieu van der Pol is the most highly touted. The Tour of Flanders winner will make his second career Grand Tour appearance on Friday in Hungary.

As he did in last year's Tour de France, van der Pol enters the opening stage of the Giro as one of the favorites to win and take the leader's jersey. Last summer, he narrowly lost to Julien Alaphilippe in the uphill finish of Landerneau and won yellow one day later in Mules de Bretagne. [5.5km, 4.2% finishing hill, with many riders aiming for the first Maria Rosa of the race.

"It's a smaller dream than the yellow jersey," Van der Pol said at a pre-race press conference on Wednesday. It's not easy to get the pink jersey, but I'm going for it."

"I ran the finish and the last climb. It's certainly not easy. It's like the opening stage of the Tour last year.

"It's really steep. There are a lot of advantages to being in the bunch. It will be hard to attack there and hard to drop a sprinter like Caleb Yuan. Let's see who has the best legs to win the sprint."

Van der Pol leads an Alpecin Phoenix team that includes Dries De Bont and two Italians, Jakub Maleczko and Stefano Aldani, but is missing two top sprinters, Tim Mellier and Yasper Philipsen.

Merlier was sidelined by an elbow injury suffered in Paris-Roubaix, and Philipsen was never able to run. Therefore, the team will leave the results to Van der Pol. The 27-year-old will be aiming for stage wins throughout the race, but not the Ciclamino points jersey.

"The absence of Tim [Mellier] changes things a little bit," Van der Pol said. 'He's one of the fastest guys in the world and I was supposed to lead the pack. Luckily we have (Jakub) Maletzko, so we have another fast rider."

"'Podium' Maybe after the first day. Overall is not the goal. The points prize is not the goal either. I'm going for the stage win and taking the pink jersey early on."

For van der Pol, the Giro marks the start of a summer of trying out two Grand Tours. He said he hopes to complete both the Giro and the Tour, and that he hopes to come out of the three weeks stronger for the first time.

"I want to finish both the Giro and the Tour this year. It won't be easy, but I want to finish the race."

"I've never climbed the Giro, so it's a big question of how my body will be feeling. I will be happy if I can finish the race. Everyone says that finishing a Grand Tour makes you stronger."